Iraqi Church Holds First Mass Since ISIS Take-Over

Christians in the city of Qaraqosh, Iraq, were able to worship for the first time on Sunday since the take over of their land by the Islamic State in 2014, according to a Reuters report. The mass, attended by dozens of Iraqi Christians, took place at the Church of Immaculate Conception.

The news comes as Iraqi troops and U.S.-led air and ground forces have been driving back the Sunni Muslim jihadists ahead of a battle for the city of Mosul itself. “Today Qaraqosh is free of Daesh (Islamic State),” Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Butrus Moshe told worshippers. READ MORE